Mew - No More Stories...

Rating

: * * *

Verdict

:

Fascinating but often flaky effort from Danish dream poppers.

Song titles like

Silas the Magic Car

and

Cartoons and Macrame Wounds

gives some indication of how music, and life in general, is a fantastical and fun playground for Danish trio Mew.

They often refer to themselves as "pretentious art rock" but

No More Stories ...

- the full name of the album is ridiculously long - is more like a feverish and delusional musical trip.

The fractured, slow-motion guitar of

Introducing Palace Players

and the spiralling and trippy

Repeaterbeater

are pop music hallucinogens, and then it's into the gentle and whimsical

Silas the Magic Car

, before the hypnotic grandeur of serene seven-minute centrepiece

Cartoons and Macrame Wounds.

But while the slower songs are lovely and lush, they tend to waft rather than drift and meander like all good journeys and trips should.

Which is why Mew are at their best and most interesting when they get their groove on, like on the Pet Shop Boys-inspired

Tricks of the Trade

, the jagged dance rock oonst of

Vaccine

, which comes complete with pulsing and incessant curtain call bells, and the melodic tension of

Hawaii

, which is the sound of shoegaze band Slowdive partying with Franz Ferdinand.

Mew are for fans of out-of-kilter bands like Battles and Grizzly Bear, and even for those who are after something more twisted and wonky but still whimsical - like Fleet Foxes.

Scott Kara